Solicitors

Barristers have called on the Ministry of Justice to conduct a review of advocacy in publicly funded family cases, arguing that solicitors are letting down their clients and causing injustice by handling cases without counsel.

Two firms applying to the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become alternative business structures asked to keep their client money with the Bar Council’s third-party escrow account, BARCO, it has emerged.

A thousand more law firms will no longer be required to submit accountants’ reports, the Solicitors Regulation Authority decided at yesterday’s board meeting. The change is set to be introduced on 1 November 2015.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has rejected misconduct charges against a solicitor who said he was the victim of technology problems with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s online system, mySRA, that meant he was not aware of conditions attached to his practising certificate.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to ask solicitors how they judge the seriousness of misconduct offences in a new initiative on professional standards. The move will result in a policy statement and decision-making framework for the regulator’s staff.

Legal apprenticeships “are going to be massive” and law firms will have to respond by recruiting A-Level students straight from school, the dean of BPP Law School has predicted. Peter Crisp said he also believed the SRA would “force through” a centralised assessment test for would-be solicitors.

A solicitor convicted of child pornography offences has been struck off after his plea to be suspended instead so that he might retain some dignity and as an acknowledgement of his efforts in the profession was rejected.

The new government is not keen to extend regulation of legal services, including will-writing, the chief executive of the Legal Services Board (LSB) has warned. Richard Moriarty said innovation was key to tackling the “trilemma” facing legal services.

An end to a compulsory minimum level of professional indemnity insurance (PII) and replacing the compensation fund with an insurance policy are among the ideas for reform of client protection arrangements put forward by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A law firm with offices in Italy and England was under a duty to warn British and Irish property investors of the risks of investing in a part of Italy associated with organised crime, the High Court has ruled.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating an immigration law firm condemned by Sir Brian Leveson for a “systemic failure” in the way it allowed an unqualified caseworker to issue a judicial review without supervision.

In a rare move, a barrister has been allowed to finish her pupillage at a personal injury law firm. Henrietta Hughes is set to become the first in-house counsel at Cheshire and London firm Hilary Meredith Solicitors when her pupillage ends in August.

A solicitor whose firm was shut down last year after failing to effect an orderly wind-down has agreed never to practise again in a deal struck with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. John David Arnott admitted to five charges relating to his practice in Witney, Oxfordshire.

A solicitor who is in a relationship with his client while she goes through an acrimonious contact dispute is to be investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, with a High Court judge saying that the lawyer is “in a situation where he cannot give independent professional advice”.

A solicitor struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has won the right to a new hearing in front of a different tribunal after the High Court ruled that the tribunal was wrong to accuse her of dishonesty.